Blockchain & VCs: Building the South Block by Block
TLDR:
- Southern Africa is the best place for VC investors in Africa
- Blockchain is the African services equaliser
- Southern Africa is ideal for Blockchain investment in Africa
Investors, Change & Impact For All
Before we take our first crucial step into this wondrous topic, understand, we are operating on a fundamental belief:
Southern Africa’s unique blend of stable regulation, government enablement, blockchain adoption, and developer density makes it one of the continent’s prime regions for VC investment, especially in high impact sectors, such as blockchain. A grand but reasonable belief.
Let’s address the digital elephant in the room. In recent years, African VC has been drying up, with resurgences taking place only recently, due to active capital being deployed. Web3 was hit hardest, not just in Africa but globally. Web3 is the belief that the next stage of the internet we are on (Web2), eventually moves into decentralisation to solve for trust deficits and continuous institutional fragility. Why? Because people deserve freedom in knowing how their data is collected, used, and services delivered well.
Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has been the biggest driving force of Web3-focused solutions, not just in Africa but across much of the blockchain adopting world. Decentralised finance is the process of financial operations, transactions, being between 2 parties with no intermediary (i.e, a bank). DeFi drives Web3 because you can monetise through transaction fees. Almost all other web3 solutions require transaction fees as a prerequisite for success, especially in Africa.
Without embedded consistent transactional revenue or usage based fees, the models lack sound unit economics, so VCs, or any other early stage investors, would be hesitant to invest. DeFi in Africa has been dominant because VC’s and investors see recognise the yield capture rate of transaction fees, which directly means easier pathway to liquidity.
Blockchain is giving even greater financial freedom to the traditionally ignored and globally marginalised. This thought is omnipresent on every levelof the tech and investor ecosystems on Blockchain. How do we know? Because high level voices in the African Blockchain ecosystem have echoed similarly.
“Blockchain is creating this ubiquity for the exchange of value on the internet, enabling an economic value layer which is democratised and globally accessible.” — Jarryd Kennedy (CV VC, Head of Investments: Africa, TechCabal)
For the first time in a long time, since 2023, Fintech/DeFi has been unsat as the main target of African blockchain investments. The vast majority of blockchain funding up until 2023 has been in Fintech/DeFi. From CV VC’s 2024 Africa Blockchain Report, we see thatBlockchain Networks are now the main driving force of African Blockchain Venture Funding Industries. However, what exactly are Blockchain Networks? In summary, they are blockchain networks that have at least a “footprint” in Africa, but aren't necessarily founded by Africans, received investment from African investors, or target audience being Africans. They are just blockchain companies in types of blockchain finance, blockchain KYC (Know-Your-Customer), KYT(Know-Your-Transaction), Ethereum Layer 2 Scalability, cryptographic protocols etc.
What do all those buzz words mean? Overall they count as “Blockchain Networks”. The $78 Million USD that went into those Blockchain Network investments came from 2 companies. Both headquartered in Seychelles but operations by and large across the world. They are Scroll.io and Beldex.io.
Scroll.io is a Layer-2 blockchain network that scales Ethereum using zero knowledge rollups (zkEVM) to for faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions. Beldex is a blockchain that provides secure digital transactions through advanced cryptographic protocols. Together, their total funding in 2023 and Q1 2024 amounts to $78 million USD.
In essence, African fintechs being displaced this year is due to two outlier organisations which are based in Seychelles. Outside of these two outliers, African blockchain is still financial dominant at $52 Million USD total investment from 2023 to Q12024.
The reason Scroll.io and Beldex.io got a great amount of funding is because they directly tackle security, KYC, and cryptographic innovation. Effectively making the decentralised world safer. Keep in mind, previously, decentralised tech provided investors with very little regulatory assurance…until now.
In fact, Rob Downes, Head of Digital Assets, CIB Africa, Absa Group, stated, “We’re seeing exchanges becoming more sophisticated, and that’s important for building trust with both retail and institutional investors” (The 2024 Geography of Crypto Report, 2024). He said this in reference to the South African Rand (ZAR) to pair trading of cryptos on South African Centralised Exchanges (CEX’s). The institutional sophistication was regulations, governmental backing, and platform KYC operations implementations. So decentralisations safety is thanks to KYC (Know-Your-Customer) being implemented more in blockchain solutions, as well as improved cryptography implementations and solutions. This is why solutions such as Scroll.io become popular. They let you prove the authenticity of transactions, which eliminates or mitigates fraud across the Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain. Before KYC, or zkEVMs (Scroll.io) decentralised technologies couldn’t be investor safe. Not for VC strategic wings of corporates, angel investors, or even for VC funds. Too much risk from regulators, founders, markets etc. Everyone who could have a stake saw them as a risk.
In recent years, selective data of users is kept, and in this way, baseline profitability is achieved through mitigated data side-selling.
With this being done, Web3 solutions globally, but especially in Africa, are finally looking like the sweetest non-alcoholic wine.
So investors are building the south; however, it’s Southern Africa, Block by Block! Not the global South, but it is the entirety of Africa. However, we will be focusing on the most dynamic, investor-safe, and high-return region, and that is Southern Africa.
Southern Africa is being quietly built, supported, and holding the decentralised aspirations of an entire continent. Grab your gloves, let’s dissect the chain, and go through the most important ways blockchain technologies are growing in Southern Africa.
VCs have been pulling back since 2020. The big virus hit all investment spaces, across all continents, significantly hard. But none were hit more than Africa. A continent often seen as a risky investment (even though a lot of African sectors grow faster than their counterparts), global investors still withdrew. African VC was at its lowest in the following years. According to Partech, VC funding in Africa dropped in Africa by 46% year-on-year, from $6.5 billion in 2022 to $3.5 billion in 2023 alone.
Through those downward trending, tumultuous years, the tech scene exploded globally. In 2020, it was professional service technologies that exploded. (Zoom being prominent). Tech stacks to be implemented in pertinent businesses that were most remote work-enabled. Notion, Slack, Zoom, Clickup. In 2021, it was cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. In 2022, it was Cloud infrastructure and Blockchain. In 2023, it was Blockchain technology and virtual reality tech (credit to Meta for the metaverse). In 2024, it was AI and Blockchain, again. These trends may all seem distinctive, but there are outlier technologies that recurrently have their heads “sticking out” to VCs and to people cross-continentally, if not globally. These three would be AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity.
For half the decade, they seem to be the bastion of our continent’s development.
These key technologies are changing the way Africa does business and the way in which businesses function from the very foundations. AI targeting workflows, Cybersecurity targeting digital safety, and Blockchain have the biggest impact. Through Web3, we are seeing not only the financial landscape of the continent grow, and transactions become cheaper, but we are also seeing the growth and trust of businesses scale within countries due to the safety and trust that comes with decentralised technologies.
From fintech, insurtech, Decentralised Autonomous Organisations, Decentralised Identity Systems, and even to agritech. Blockchain technologies are changing the foundations of how Africans interact with the private sector, public sector, and their own information. Nowhere else is this more pronounced than in Southern Africa.
Even if Blockchain wasn’t the main target in some years, the sector always saw adoption and investments, albeit at times at lower rates than others. Initially in 2020, the total African cryptocurrency market saw a 1200% growth (in one year!), if that’s not a boom, I don’t know what is. In 2021, 89 million USD of Blockchain funding went into Africa, with most of that 89 million shared between South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. At the time, South Africa was voted to be one of the top 20 countries in the world for crypto adoption. South Africa is one of Africa’s investment capitals, and definitely Southern Africa’s.
If the powerhouse were this open to decentralized technologies and their influence, then the adoption effect would also have an effect on the regional countries, which it then did.
In 2023, maybe the blockchain hype will die down? Maybe African VCs and investors would pull out? Wrong. It did not double, nor did it triple. It quadrupled in value. VCs in African Web3 were ecstatic. Africa as a whole saw 414 million USD in investments in the blockchain space.
The vast majority of this funding (approximately 43%) is going to… that’s right! Seychelles!… What?
Seychelles was slowly becoming the crypto haven of Africa. Seychelles is not traditionally considered Southern African, on a cultural or social level; however, nonetheless, they are part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The rest of that USD 200 Million+ was divided continentally, albeit unevenly. Majority to South Africa & Nigeria.
Decentralisation captures African audiences, especially in Southern Africa. Since 2022, Africa has witnessed its first blockchain boom. Interest was mainly in fintech and the decentralized finance space (DeFi). Currently, fintech is still the king of blockchain implementations in Africa; however, other sub implementations have taken root and are starting to show effect, much to the joy of willful investors. (Shotout CV VC, EMURGO Africa, and Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures).
Private Enterprise Believes in Decentralisation, Should VCs Too?
The fundamental characteristics of blockchain technologies are transparency, immutability, and communal-determination (hint, hint…DAOs). These are relevant to countries/regions where people care more about the private sector’s self-growth, without any real governmental interference. To our shared great joy, these are uniquely Southern African characteristics as well.
Blockchain technologies target Southern Africa’s ever-endemic systemic issues. This is the core reason widespread adoption has been prioritised in the region. This isn’t theoretical, speculative, or even unfounded; Everyday citizens and businesses are seeking efficient, democratic privatised solutions to their problems. VCs believe in where the impact and returns are. So let’s ask ourselves, where is the impact that privatised investment can leverage?
Private Investment & Impact:
The region’s citizens are proactively embracing decentralisation to overcome governmental limitations, as well as financial inequalities that sporadically pop up in the region…*cough cough* Zimbabwe *cough cough*. In effect, the trends of VC firms investing in blockchain tech not only spurred a sector, but in Southern Africa, it spurred new growth in ways of doing business and system reliability.
Impact of Web3 on Southern Africa: Web3’s influences extend much more beyond mere digital assets such as stablecoins, traditional cryptos, or NFTs. Different Blockchain implementations can be found throughout Southern Africa, denoting not just potential impact, but high usability. Practical, infinitely scalable, affordable, and built for democratic institutions and procedures. Blockchain apps and the environments where they operate are a VC’s tech investment dream.
DeFi is better than Fi: DeFi is like normal financial exchange platforms, but now with decentralised elements. E.g., Imagine Wall Street, but on your phone with normal finance transaction apps. (PayPal, Apple Pay, WeChat). Instead, DeFi apps (YellowCard, Binance, and Luno) are exactly like that, but with lower transaction fees, less middle party interference, and security is exponentially higher due to most blockchain technologies’ immutability and decentralised identity mechanisms.
DeFi solutions are democratising access to financial services for the unbanked, underbanked, financially risk-averse, and low-trust individuals. All this whilst drastically lowering transaction costs.
Financial Inclusion & Remittances:
- xStocks(Valr), South Africa: South African-based crypto exchange Valr, a licensed crypto asset service provider, is now offering tokenized stocks of U.S traditional company-based equities through its xStocks platform. They are the first and only African platform to do this. Essentially, their platform allows Southern Africans to invest in direct equity from the world’s biggest equity market (USA). In essence, the user can invest in tokenized assets of Tesla, Nvidia, and many other tokenized American corporations. All without traditional foreign exchange limitations or having to utilize their overseas allowance. Their African users have a chance at wealth creation, global portfolio diversification, and financial inclusion.
- Yellow Card, 4 Countries in Southern Africa: They are, of course, the biggest pan-African stablecoin payment system provider. Yellow Card facilitates faster and cheaper cross-border and cross-continental payments. More and more African SME’s are increasingly using stablecoins to pay suppliers, traders, and receive international or cross-continental payments, at a fraction of regular banking fees. This directly addresses high remittance costs and foreign exchange shortages for SME’s and individuals to thrive.
According to Forbes Africa, in 2024, stablecoin transfers accounted for 43% of total crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa, a key player in the Southern African region, experienced a 50% month-over-month growth in stablecoin usage since October 2023, notably displacing Bitcoin as the country’s most popular cryptocurrency.
This means southern Africans are finding financial security in digital assets that are pegged by real-world monetary value(USDT, USDC, Binance USD). In this way, decentralisation is embraced to be a curb to forex, and an inflation shield of sorts. This surge underscores the practical utility of stablecoins for daily financial activities, including remittances, savings, and even business operations, providing a reliable hedge against local currency volatility.
However, this brings up a query:
Just how much of our current funding is based on DeFi or Fintech operators?
24 companies were listed by CV VC to have received funding (at a minimum of $100K). Of the 24, 8 Ventures were in the fintech space. Not only that, they also dominated in funding amount. That is 33% of all major VC deals in Web3 of the 2024 fiscal year. Meaning DeFi still dominates, mostly, in regard to Africa’s decentralised future, this is soon to be challenged by rising sectors.
Beyond Fintech, Standout Blockchain Investments:
Web3 is a transcendental technology in the African sector. Its power and impact range, influence beyond the financial realm, giving greater autonomy to the citizenry, in tandem with efficacy increase. What other solution types?
Identity Management: Blockchain offers self-sovereign identity solutions, empowering individuals with control over their personal data and streamlining access to services.
E.g: FlexFinTx, Zimbabwe: Persistent delays in document issuance increase the appeal of decentralised-identity-systems (DID’s), and citizen credentials. FlexFinTx is an example of a product that was attempting to solve this problem. A Zimbabwean-based product, their goal? It was to help 400 million Africans with no proper identification build sovereign identities (DID’s) so that they have forms of identification anywhere they go.
- Supply Chain & Logistics Management: Enhancing transparency and efficiency in critical sectors like agriculture and pharmaceuticals, combating fraud, and ensuring authenticity:
E.g: Pulse by NABP, South Africa: IBM, in partnership with Prosper Africa and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, piloted NABP. A blockchain-based, AI-backed pharmaceutical drug tracking platform. From major manufacturers like Pfizer, all the way to localised urban, and to an extent rural, pharmacies. Enhancing the visibility of their drug logistics supply chain to combat counterfeit drugs, reduces the spoiling of drugs, and keeps stock filled and fresh. A platform for improving drug safety in African markets in LEDC countries, where drug counterfeiting is prevalent.
Besides DeFi, Identity Management (DIDs), Management, and Logistics are the most used instances of decentralised tech in Africa. Real estate, Gaming, & Entertainment are not quite at the lucrative sweet spot yet. Keep in mind, the most sought-after decentralised technologies are not only the most impactful, but the most life-changing for the citizenry. This is another reason why VCs were rightfully vested in African fintech and DeFi. Albeit, the other use cases have similar or potentially higher levels of impact.
Freedom for VC
We have to wonder if governments, national test projects, and major institutions are looking more favorably toward African Blockchain. Then, how have real world VCs reacted to Blockchain?
CV VC. They are one of the biggest investors in Blockchain technologies across the entire African continent. Their portfolio itself, like many others, is dominated by financial based blockchain startups e.g: IvoryPay, Kasi Money, and Mazzuma. An estimated 40%+ of their portfolio is not finance based, this is in contrast to other VCs. Why do they do this? Their investment thesis:
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“We invest in blockchain because it’s more than just technology”
Immediately, we can denote something explicit; they are not investing just for financial returns, they are investing for future impact. The tech that not only transforms ecosystems but makes whole new ones. After all, many aspects of Blockchain can be considered frontier tech. Why? Because Blockchain is Web3 and Web3 is the new internet, with this “new internet” comes new sectors, for those with the will to create.
Their investments outside fintech also illustrate the current trends, not just of Southern Africa, but African supply chain oritentated tech and management tech. If not specific to Southern Africa, why mention them? Southern Africa is the home of Africa’s blockchain ambitions outside of fintech, but we must consider at least a few other startups or projects outside the region to see that Southern Africa is ahead of a trend that has been creeping up on other regions, whether it be in West, East, or North Africa.
OkHi: They build blockchain based digital address verification, an infrastructure that attempts to give those with no formal address a verifiable, universally eligible address. The African continent suffers from a formal address issue. In fact, across the entire continent, 1 in 3 people have no formal address. That's 500 million people walking around with no formally recognised residence.
What we should focus on is their partnerships and pilot programs. They have partnered with payment platforms such as Interswitch Group, piloted with banks such as Stanbic IBTC Bank (Nigeria), and increased address verification by 30% and reduced cost by 50%. In essence institutions both in the public and private sectors are finding use in them, especially the private sector.
houseafrica: They are a blockchain based prop tech company on a mission to bring transparency, verification, and digitisation to real estate/land ownership. Using the core tech of Blockchain and geospatial mapping.
They are enhanced proptech.
They currently have 100+ real estate companies in partnership with them using their tech. This is due to their efficacy in reducing duplicate land titles, illegal sites, and ownership disputes. The Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) is one of the public institutions that finds utilisation in its product.
We mentioned these two non-Southern African startups for perspective.
Notice the two startups mentioned are outside fintech, and they have real world utilisation in both private and public sectors. The trends we have been discussing are not just in Southern Africa, but Africa as a whole. The only difference is that in Southern Africa, it is MORE.
Tradition is Falling, Web3 is Winning
No Service in “Public Service”
Southern Africa’s basic services remain a live catalyst for private, digital alternatives. We touched on this earlier. This is because public services across Africa just fail, failure is failure, and its effects are only worsened in the public sphere. Citizenry grew tired, and as such, they moved towards tech solutions, with DeFi solutions being the most leveraged. Cross-continentally, as well as regionally, specific to Southern Africa.
South Africa still has many decentralised examples outside DeFi technology. 2023 was the worst year on record for load-shedding, with thousands of outage hours disrupting households, SME’s, and baseline services. South Africa needs an energy evolution, but who stepped in? Sun Exchange. A platform that allows someone in another country to buy a solar panel, you lease the solar panel from them by paying through crypto, then you receive the energy from their newly bought panels. Public energy services failed, so a service that has decentralised components stepped in. International funding for permanent & clean energy.
Regardless of the success between each company and the varying levels of success, there is effort. Effort to remove the public sector from people’s lives and scale to impact the lives of Africans nationally, regionally, and continentally.
Economic tides are nudging users on-chain
Remittances into SSA remain among the world’s most expensive, and fees spike fully in the smaller SADC region. Pressure to compress costs pushes citizenry and companies to stablecoin and DeFi services.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the smallest crypto market by shared value. However, from 2023 to 2024, total crypto transactions surpassed $125B USD in on-chain value, with growth concentrated in non-institutional (sub-$1m) transfers — this is exactly the retail/SME estimated bracket size of the region. That $125B USD was a $7.5B increase from the previous user. Consistent massive leaps in transactions since 2020, continual and steady.
Social tides: Optimize for reliability, speed, and dignity
Government rails are slow, or just not available. Communities are forced to optimise with the backing of the private sector. Freelancers and programmers being paid with USDT/USDC (or just Bitcoin), Creators joining stablecoin-based platforms, SME’s utilising the inflation hedging positive of stable coins from importing to sale, etc. The use cases are multi-faceted, endless, and trans regional across Southern Africa. Payments, savings, and enhanced commerce.
This reflects directly in developer trends. Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa are leading Africa in total developer amount, on the open source level. On this basis, Nigeria has 1.1 million, Egypt has 900K, and South Africa with 700K. In total, this means South Africa has a higher developer count relative to population by almost twice that of their counterparts. This translates directly into Blockchain development, too.
As of 2024, Africa in totality has 12K Blockchain developers. These numbers skewed heavily towards South Africa and Nigeria; Egypt is not included because the Blockchain frenzy was mitigated by the government. More than half of these African developers are building on Ethereum, with more on Layer 2 solutions like Base by Coinbase & Lisk as of 2024.
Blockchain developers are growing across the continent, are growing because most Africans crave decentralised, privatised solutions to their problems. An estimated 1/3rd or more of those blockchain developers are in Southern Africa, as the region is the most open to all types of decentralised solutions.
Public-Private Growth
Let’s list down even more examples of decentralised solutions. This time through the lens of private-public partnerships. Where the governments actually encourage decentralised solutions to pull in.
- In Botswana, the De Beers Tracr Platform with Okavango Diamond Company(ODC) is one of the best examples of blockchain in a public-private partnership.: Botswana’s ODC is state-owned and responsible for large parts of Botswana’s diamond mining activities. In 2025, it began registering its mining activities through the Tracr platform, which De Beers owns and operates. An extending immutable blockchain ability from the diamond mine all the way to the location of processing, and then sale. This will align miners, regulators, and buyers. In such a supply chain, tokenized inventory, Buyer KYC, verified diamonds, etc. become much more simple. This is not only a rare instance of private to public partnerships using a rare, production-scale Web3 supply chain platform, but it is also highly effective and better than traditional methods.
- South African Reserve Bank — Project Khokha 2 (1&2): Project Khokha is a private and public partnership between the South African Reserve Bank and ConsenSys (with local banks). The project is a wholesale interbank settlement system. It uses Ethereum-based blockchain tech and algorithmic methodologies to simulate clearing and settlement of payments between banks. Khoka 1 performed high-value interbank transactions extremely well; as such, Khoka 2 was developed and released in 2022.
Khoka 2 tested multi-asset settlement (central bank monetary exchanges, commercial banking exchanges, and securities). All this being based on ConsenSys Blockchain (So on a chain specifically meant for enterprise/private regulated industries).
- Namibia’s Virtual Assets Act (2023): This isn’t a startup; it is a law act. This will affect all Web3-based enterprises in Namibia now and going forward. This regulatory framework is for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and Initial Token-Offering Service Providers (ITOSPs). The law and framework brings clarity on “digital assets” and what actually makes them. This law creates a precedent and foothold in Southern Africa. It shows the enablement of compliance forward token distribution as well as VASP operations, with regional clarity for the rest of the SADC market.
Autonomy, Through Decentralization
Year ramp: Startups, Builders, Signal
On the criteria of company formation, Africa’s blockchain venture activity remains led by South Africa on both deal count and value (2022–2024), per CV VC’s Africa Blockchain Report of 2024. This is consistent with what we’re seeing in reality. However, this does not mean the rest of Southern Africa is missing from the action, as we have illustrated.
Some are more excited than others for it, but all are deeply looking into web3, even in the age of AI. That’s why AI agents became so big originally, an AI in a decentralised environment is quite the idea. If you love AI agents, then a decentralised AI agent is even better. Like a ChatGPT that doesn’t steal your data and can actually grow naturally instead of being interfered with.
South Africa will be the anchor of the region, with Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia rising as more than open and stable regulatory environments. Malawi is another contender that often remains silent, but is showing complete openness to any and all technological innovations, with a preference for Web3 and AI.
From “BE GONE” to “PLEASE COME”
Southern Africa is no longer ambiguous; the region’s countries are actively licensing.
● South Africa (FSCA): Crypto assets are classified as “financial products” under FAIS by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority , bringing in exchanges, brokers, and advisors. They have officially started licensing with 500 CASP applications by December 2024 since 2023. This is world-class clarity for founders and LPs.
● Namibia: The Virtual Assets Act, 2023 (gazetted July 2023) ended the country’s prior prohibition stance and empowers NAMFISA to license and supervise VASPs.
● Zambia: SEC + Central Bank sandbox work on crypto use-cases progressed through 2023–2024; the policy tone is “test, then maybe license,” which precedes formal frameworks and creates near-term pilot windows. Great for startups to showcase real usability to investors as soon as possible.
A VC’s dream. Quick prototyping, quick integration, quick regulations. You now have at least 2–3 or licensing venues (SA, Namibia, Botswana) that are credible. This de-risks compliance, enlarges the talent/customer pool, and gives portfolio companies multiple “regulatory homes” for regional scale.
Southern Africa: DAO Centric, Mobile First, and Reality Based
● Community-first/DAO-fluent culture: The region has multiple live DAO-based experiments, that align with community ownership narratives like (e.g., Africarare’s Ubuntu DAO governance for the metaverse). These are imperfect but show user-owned network literacy, useful when entering marketplaces or communities for further expansion with support.
● Mobile adoption & distribution: Sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile ecosystem keeps compounding, GSMA predicts 88% unique mobile subscriber penetration by 2030 (SSA overall), with smartphone adoption marching upward; Southern Africa sits above the continental average today. For Web3, this means push-to-wallet distribution and cheaper customer retention and acquisition.
● Real-world enterprise use: De Beers’s Tracr platform runs at Botswana scale — proof that high-value supply chains in Southern Africa already embed blockchain for auditability.
Government is Encouraging Investors into Web3
● Regulatory clarity (FSCA/NAMFISA/NBFIRA) signals encouragement via rules. Rare in emerging markets, especially in Africa, and it invites safe pilot programs.
● State enhancement pilots (e.g: Khokha) pave the way for tokenized settlement rails that private fintech/DeFi can plug into, unlocking SME use-cases.
● Public-private supply chains are already live, proving “trust but verify” models at national-export scale.
Investors, Building Citizenry Autonomy Block by Block
Southern Africa’s blockchain upbringing is a structural re-ordering. The region’s users are not speculating for show; they are substituting broken public services with decentralised systems that actually work. They are pushing the web3 use cases in the private enterprise, too. Where governments have failed to provide stability, and inefficient companies, investors with their well-chosen blockchain startups have begun providing those functions. And better than ever before.
Startups seizing the moment
A new generation of ventures is already embedding this shift into the region’s daily economy. All the startups shown in graphs, explicitly mentioned, and rules stated, are actively working. They are all actively moving.
They are monetisable replacements for non-functioning governments and corporates.
VCs Hesitate, Markets & People Move
Historically, global VC attitudes toward African blockchain were cautious AT BEST. Capital was concentrated in Nigeria’s fintech boom, or in pan-African “super-apps” that rarely scaled across borders.
Southern Africa, despite its deeper capital markets, higher smartphone penetration, and general stability, was often considered “too regulated” or “too small” to be worth a bet.
That picture has been inverted. South Africa’s FSCA licensing regime, Namibia’s Virtual Assets Act, and Botswana’s VASP framework etc. The region now offers more regulatory clarity than Nigeria or Kenya, and definitely the others. Public-private pilots like Project Khokha 2 show a willingness to integrate tokenised assets into public pools a green light for institution-focused startups. And the talent pool — over 700k GitHub confirmed developers in South Africa alone, makes it one of the densest engineering markets on the continent.
The VC opportunity today
For investors, the opportunity is structural. While global blockchain VC shrank post-2022, Southern Africa’s share of African blockchain funding has held up, with South Africa and Botswana capturing the lion’s share of deals.
The resilience is held by real-world demand: households and SMEs use stablecoins because local currencies collapse; retailers use blockchain IDs because government databases fail; exporters use ledgers because buyers demand compliance. These aren’t optional experiments; they’re necessary workarounds.
urgent demand + regulatory clarity + talent density = fertile VC grounds for tech with impact, equality, and perpetual growth at their center.
This is not just a chance to chase returns. It is a chance to back the new operating system of society, starting in Southern Africa, and eventually to the rest of the continent.
The best path for private capital, public, and private growth is decentralisation. It is only befitting we start treating it like the societal game changer it is.
Southern Africa is just the start. Watch this space.
P.S: My love for blockchain was incentivized by my absolute distaste for African public services. Wait 9 months for my passport?…. Never again.
